Finals
Maqi (4c-Blood) vs. TaZi (UGr-Scapeshift)
g1: I choose to play because of swiss standings. My hand is Savnnah, Horizon Canopy, Tec Edge, Noble Hierarch, Kichen Finks, Aven Mindcensor, Vindicate. So, very good. Especially on the play.
I lead with Noble => Finks to have the maximum amount of damage output first and plan on "getting him" with the Aven a little later. On turn three after attacking I deploy a drawn Elvish Mystic and pass with three mana up. He EOT cracks his Flooded Strand and walks right into my Aven.
He has Breath of Darigaaz to kill off my elves. I then just do nothing but attack for the next few turns. Partly because I can't and partly because I don't want to either. Since I know TaZi is UG-based, his hand is very likely stuck with countermagic and other "fluffy" stuff. I want him to make the first move (Xenagos, the Reveler at the ready to jump in if needed).
He has not much but a lone Into the Roil to buy time (targeting my Finks) but it is not enough and he succumbs to the beats.
1:0
g2: I mull a hand of fetchland x2, Reflecting Pool, Duress, Tidehollow Sculler, Lightning Helix and FtK. The hand is kind of playable since it has all the mana I need and a proactive t1 and t2 play but not much else. Early discard is ok against his deck but not exactly backbreaking because he has high redundancy. This hand just doesn't have the clock I like against Scapeshift and that's why I ship it.
The next one is pure gold again whatsoever: Llanowar Wastes, Temple Garden, Deathrite Shaman, Voice of Resurgence, Qasali Pridemage, Eladamri's Call and Vindicate.
He goes Island go and I deploy DRS. He Bolts it on his next turn and adds Ancestral Vision. I drop Voice to ward against potential counters. He mainphases Vendilion Clique (because of Voice) and takes away my Vindicate. I draw Scavenging Ooze and Thrun once I draw for my turn.
I attack my Voice into his Clique and he declines to block (I would have been fine with a trade, since I have gas to pump up the Elemental). Second main, I drop Sc. Ooze and think for a while if to use it right away (with him being tapped out) and playing around Fire/Ice and Electrolyze or playing around Snapcaster (Bolt) and leaving open G. I decide to use it right away because this plays around two of his cards while Snappy is only one.
Sure enough he has the Mage on his turn (topdecks it even!!! Now that I'm watching the replays...
) and Bolts my Ooze. Then swings with the Clique and drops Dark Depths (danger...). I draw Courser of Kruphix for my turn and choose to play it over Thrun and Pridemage (with E. Call still in hand). I want to develop my land base but am content enough with Tainted Pact sitting on top of my deck since it is an out to his Marit Lage.
I attack with my Voice and he trades with his Snapcaster. On his turn he drops E. Witness, buys back a land and plays it. Then says go with both his creatures untapped (offering a 1:2 trade on Courser or a 1:1 trade on the Elemental).
I think long for my attacks since Tainted Pact now offers me the possibility of Arc Trail/Zealous Persecution for quick pressure. But I think it will be more valuable as a reactive tool to ward against his Marit Lage. Especially because his Ancestral Vision will go off next turn, I don't think my board will be fast enough. I offer a 1:2 trade with my attacking Courser after deploying my Q. Pridemage. He takes it.
He draws 4, drops a land and passes with 5 mana up. I EOT E. Call. He let's it resolve. I fetch Aven and plan for a longer game. I'm kind of liking my spot because my creatures (Q. Pridemage and Elemental) have free reign. But at the same time he dangerously approaches seven lands and any tutor on Thespian Stage can be problematic.
And that's the moment (with me being tapped out so I can't also play Aven EOT) he Crop Rotates for the Stage. Good that I still have Tainted Pact. Then on my drawstep (I draw Thoughtseize!) he summons Marit Lage (leaving UU up). I'm not exactly sure why he chooses this moment.
I Seize him, which gets Memory Lapsed and then dig deep for Path to Exile to exile his token (about 30 cards left). I attack him.
On his turn he topdecks his needed 6th land for Primeval Titan (ouch, I have no out to this at the moment...). He gets Maze and Raging Ravine.
On my turn I draw... Liliana of the Veil. Nice! That Titan is gone. I attack again.
He takes down my Lili with his Ravine and adds Sakura-Tribe Elder. Then passes. I draw Duress, cast it and see Solemn Simulacrum and Electrolyze. The burning cantrip is gone. And he chumps with his Elder and gets a Mountain with it through my flashed in Aven.
He chooses not to play Solemn into my Aven and passes. I add Thrun and swing. Maze stems the bleeding and Ravine trades with the Elemental, but he is getting low.
He topdecks Fire/Ice to get rid of the Aven and drops Solemn.
Now I make a severe misplay. My board is Thrun and Q. Pridemage. He has Maze and Solemn. We both have one card in hand. His card is unknown to me. I have Tidehollow Sculler.
I am kind of too curious of what he is holding and play the Sculler pre-combat... This is so bad, since he gets another free topdeck by the soon dying Solemn. He only has Cultivate, which I grudgingly take.
I nevertheless have to attack with Thrun, take the Exalted trigger from the Cat Warrior, sac it to kill the Solemn and hit him down to 1.
He drew Coiling Oracle from the Solemn (which I could have snagged with my Sculler
) and Sylvan Library for the turn. So he would basically be dead already. However, the Oracle finds him another Oracle (of Mul Daya). So, two blockers and a Maze...
Nice. I think I might lose now but even through Sylvan Library, Mul Daya landdrops and Impulse he cannot find anything in time which can stop my Thrun. A timely topdecked removal on my side ends the game two turns later. Phew... dodged the bullet.
2:0
g3: I open a hand of 5 land, a Sylvan Caryatid and Siege Rhino. This might be a shaky keep against RDW but certainly not a keep at all against Scapeshift. I mull and fan open this: 3 fetches, BoP, Sc. Ooze, Loxodon Smiter, Siege Rhino. Very good pressure hand but not much disruption. Definitely a more than fine keep though.
He opens with Misty Rainforest and I draw... Wasteland! I open Bayou, BoP. He (rightly) fears Aven Mindcensor and fetches EOT for Breeding Pool. Then on his turn he adds Valakut.
Perfect! This indicates a shaky land draw on his side and my Wasteland might just take him out completely (backed up by the tempo gained from the Birds).
I'm thinking about whether I should drop Smiter or wasting his Pool now and dropping Sc. Ooze. I choose the latter because I could just completely wreck him if he has no other blue (or green), which is a little likely because he didn't fetch a basic with his UG-fetchland.
He only has Rishadan Port and Mountains for the next few turns. In the end, Smiter and Rhino join the party and beat down savagely. On his 5th turn he finds an Island and Electrolyzes my Sc. Ooze. But my Thoughtseize takes his last board-interactive spell (Into the Roil) and leaves his hand only with counterspells and Treasure Cruise (which will leave him very little mana next turn).
He finds nothing and concedes to my lethal force.
3:0
Thanks to Vazdru and hitman for organizing the HLL. And thanks TaZi for the nice games! Now we're 1:1 in finals! Maybe we can repeat again, would be nice!
I hope this wasn't too long and too much a wall of text for you. Let me know if these kind of step-by-step reports are appreciated or if I should focus more on specific decisions and abbreviate the rest.
